Thomas DuBose affidavit on the Roswell debris
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 8 July 1947 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Thomas DuBose, Roger Ramey, Clements McMullen, Jaime Shandera, Jesse Marcel |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 38 |
| Year | 1947 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1947 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
On 8 July 1947, after the Roswell Army Air Field announced it had recovered a "flying disc", the debris was flown to Eighth Air Force headquarters at Fort Worth, Texas, where Major General Roger Ramey announced it was a weather balloon. Colonel Thomas DuBose, Ramey's chief of staff, later said in a 1991 affidavit that the balloon was a cover story and that the real material had been sent on to Washington and Wright Field.[1][2]
Fort Worth, 8 July 1947
It was in Ramey's office at Fort Worth Army Air Field that the famous photographs of crumpled foil, sticks and rubber were taken and shown to reporters as the Roswell "flying disc". DuBose and Ramey appear in some of them, as does Major Jesse Marcel, the Roswell intelligence officer who had brought debris from the ranch. Ramey told the press that the material was the remains of a weather balloon and its radar reflector.[1][2]
DuBose's account
In an affidavit signed on 16 September 1991, when he was 89, DuBose said Major General Clements McMullen of Strategic Air Command had phoned him about the Roswell recovery. On McMullen's orders, he said, Colonel William Blanchard sent the material from Roswell in a sealed container; Colonel Al Clark flew it on from Fort Worth to Washington in a B-26, and McMullen had it forwarded to General Benjamin Chidlaw at Wright Field in Ohio. DuBose stated that the debris in the photographs was a weather balloon and that the balloon story was a cover to divert the press.[1]
Conflicting statements
DuBose's statements were not consistent. In an August 1990 interview with Roswell researchers he said he had never seen the real debris and that the material in Ramey's office was not from Roswell; in later interviews with Jaime Shandera he said the material in the photographs was what Marcel had brought from Roswell. Skeptics also argue that the ML-307 radar reflectors visible in the photographs were not used at Fort Worth or Roswell, which undercuts the idea that local balloon debris was substituted for the real material.[1][3]
Official explanation
The Air Force's 1994 report agreed that the balloon story concealed something, but concluded that it was the classified Project Mogul balloon array, designed to detect Soviet nuclear tests, not an extraterrestrial craft. DuBose died in February 1992.[1][3]
People and topics
- Thomas DuBose — Eighth Air Force chief of staff in 1947 who appears in the Fort Worth balloon photos and later called the balloon story a cover.
- Roswell — The New Mexico town at the center of the 1947 crash story.
- Fort Worth — The Texas city where the Roswell debris was shown to the press in 1947.
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — The Ohio air base that housed Project Blue Book and is linked to the Hangar 18 legend.
- Roger Ramey — Eighth Air Force commander who presented the Roswell balloon in 1947.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Clements McMullen — Strategic Air Command deputy commander named in the DuBose affidavit.
- Strategic Air Command — The Air Force command that controlled U.S. nuclear bombers and missiles.
- Jaime Shandera — TV producer who received the MJ-12 film in 1984.
- Jesse Marcel — Intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group who recovered the Roswell debris in 1947.
- Project Mogul — A secret Army Air Forces program using balloon trains to detect Soviet nuclear tests, blamed by the Air Force for the Roswell debris.
On the Timeline
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- Art McQuiddy and the Roswell press release (8 July 1947) — Roswell newspaper editor Art McQuiddy says the base announced a recovered disc, then asked him to call it a weather balloon.
- Robert Shirkey affidavit on the Roswell debris flights (8 July 1947) — Lt. Robert Shirkey's affidavit says he saw debris loaded for flights from Roswell to Fort Worth and Wright Field.
See every 1947 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Patrick Gross, "Thomas Jefferson DuBose", Roswell witness page, UFOs at close sight · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- Roswell incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Mogul — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- The DuBose affidavit — Kevin Randle · kevinrandle.blogspot.com · archived copy
- 1991 investigation notes — Patrick Gross · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- DuBose affidavit summary — UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- ufologie.patrickgross.org · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Roswell incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFOs and the Air Force: records — National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Hangar 18 (the legend and 1980 film) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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